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rrier. General McDowell left Washington with a force, whose accompaniments of civilians, following the marching columns on foot, reporters, congressmen and idle sight-

execute a flank movement upon the Confederates' left. A two hour

ce of woods, they held the open plateau across which the Federals were advancing, wholly at their mercy. General McDowell could see nothing of this, owing

ounter, and as shot and shell flew rapidly by them, as the Union men advanced over the open ground upon the enemy, who were concealed within th

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austed them, and they were unprep

clutching the stick whose strokes would never wake the echoes again. There an officer, his uniform dyed with blood, lay prostrate on the gr

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atteries tumbling over each other, many of them shot through the heart,

itted the nearer approach of the Confederates. He discovered his error when a volley of musketry took nea

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est. The batteries seemed to be the coveted prize, and they w

companies became mixed, and thousands of men lost track of thei

a short turn, found a clump of trees with a thick growth of underbrush. He heard v

gard's next move will be?"

on's brigade. They were so sure of whipping us. It was a hot battle, and three or four times I thought we had lost. Those fellows fight

ands, that it was hard to tell who had won finally a

under the impulse of fear, were fleeing to the rear. He kept on, only to find that the North

guns, the neighing of wounded, horses, the huzzas of the victors, drowning the groans of the wounded, made him faint with horror, and his cheeks grew white as he saw men lying on their backs, their glassy eyes staring up to the sky, their faces ghastly and whit

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rible sights and hideous silence which succeeded the noise of confl

hy, it's Ralph!

arded man knelt down and placed his hand upon his heart. He saw it was Bil

eak-dizz

ll Elliott, for he it was. "This is your first a

is lips wit

ve to be a brigadier-general. But I was kinder rattled myself when I s

rt in the l

tly nigh those fellows with the guns over thar, and as I'm pretty t

ore, dirty and hungry. No battle during the war was fought with more despe

to the pride of the North, it carried a valuable lesson; tha

War broke out the blacks were held in bondage to masters who had acquired th

rded as divine. In the North opinion was divided, some believing slavery to be wrong, but that it

d brave men to take up arms and arrayed brother against br

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